


So I'll Pain You Wings (And I'll Set You Free)

by tuxlouis



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 03:34:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2094180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuxlouis/pseuds/tuxlouis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What about you, then? Lived here long?” Harry asks.</p>
<p>“Only my whole life,” Louis replies. He turns his head to look at Harry with a pained smile. </p>
<p>“You don't like it here?” Harry frowns.</p>
<p>“What was your first clue?” This gets them smiling again. “It's alright, I guess, but it's so small and so, so isolated. I want to see new things, you know? Meet new people,” he gives Harry a shy side glance and looks down. “I always thought we would move, or at least go on a vacation. Then, after my dad left, I realized there was no way. My mom loves this town too much, and seeing my dad walk out the door was seeing my hope of getting out of here leaving too.”</p>
<p>He chances a look at Harry and sees such pain in his eyes that it takes him back. Then he speaks.</p>
<p>“I'm sorry your dad left. And I'm sorry you feel so trapped. I would set you free, if I could.”</p>
<p>And Louis has never been more touched.</p>
<p>aka</p>
<p>louis hates his small town until harry moves in next door. As suspected, they fall in love. </p>
<p>(Zayn is moody, niall is eternally optimistic, and liam is downright passionate.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	So I'll Pain You Wings (And I'll Set You Free)

This is how it starts. 

Louis hates his town. The village of Crossery Valley is probably the stupidest thing he's ever heard of. Basically, this guy a long time ago decided to make his own colony in the middle of fucking nowhere and have it isolated from everything ever. His mom and his teachers and every authority figure in Louis' life have tried to explain the real settling of their town, but that's all he ever really got from it. This guy (Louis can never remember his name for the life of him- probably Crossery something or something Crossery), decided to build everything himself, so there are 2 Secondary schools and the town is so small it doesn't exist on certain maps.

In conclusion, Louis hates it.

“Mom, I'm telling you, I can't live here anymore. Sixteen years of my life has gone to this shit hole and I refuse to make it another sixteen. I don't want to live in a town that was made by freaking people a million years ago!”

She sighs. “Louis, do I have to tell you the story aga-”

“No, mom, you don't. For the hundredth time, I don't care about Mr Crossery deciding to use this piece of shit land for a piece of shit tow-”

“His name didn't even have Crossery in it-”

“It didn't?” Louis is baffled. The only thing he thought he knew about Crossery Valley had been wrong. Go figure. “Anyway, that's not the point. The point is there are like a thousand people in this whole town and I know all of them. In fact, I hate most of them.” Seeing the sympathy in his mother's eyes, he gets on his knees in front of her where she's situated on the couch. “I want to see the world, mom. I want to travel. To explore. To experience. And not just to the closest city.”

Louis can see the fine line between his mother's brow and knows she understands. He also knows she loves Crossery Valley with her whole heart and this fight will end like all the others have. With her melting and his resolve unraveling and nothing changing.

“I know Louis, I know.” She takes his hands in hers and squeezes them. “But I also know that I watched your father walk out that door too early, and it would break me to see you do the same. It's 2 more years until you graduate, boo. Can you wait that long? Can you spend that time with me?” 

The look on her face and the power of her words simultaneously break him. In all the times they've had this fight, never has she said that. He squeezes her hands extra tight and wipes the tear away from the corner of her eye.

“Of course mom, of course. I'll never leave like that. I love you so much,” he says as he reaches up to hug her. He breathes in the scent of his mother, the one he has always known: laundry detergent and cinnamon. She smells like home. 

She shifts out of the embrace and give him a warm smile. “Go on now, you don't want to be late for school.” He nods and grabs his jacket in one hand and his bag in the other. He sends a wave and hollers a good bye in his mother's direction before closing the door behind him. 

xxx

The street that his house is sitting on is tiny- more of a large alleyway, really- is a curved little crescent with no more than two houses sitting on it, the other having remained empty for the entire time Louis has lived in Crossery Valley. He sticks his headphones in his ears and adverts his gaze to the sidewalk beneath him as he walks. The walk to the school is about 15 minutes, give or take, as is everything in this town. That's the one thing to love about towns the size of a postage stamp- everything is a skip away from home.

He almost trips over the box before he sees it.

“Jesus fuc-”

“Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry!” Louis looks up to see a brunette boy about his age scrambling to pick up the cardboard box in front of Louis' feet. There's a wonderful blush high on the boy's cheekbones and he's wearing a t-shirt of a band Louis has never heard of. Louis must have him.

“Not to worry, love,” Louis says with a charming smile. He sees the mystery boy's blush darken. Out of the corner of his eye, Louis spots the moving truck and the men carrying more identical boxes inside. Most of them are marked clothes or music or books. He reads. Louis is beyond smitten. “Are you just moving in then?” Louis asks. He sees the boy's attention focus back at him. 

“Yeah, just moved here from Colorado. 'M Harry,” he says with a wide smile.

Louis can feel his eyebrows jump up to his hairline. “Well, Harry, let me ask you this: why in the hell would you move from somewhere like Colorado to somewhere like Crossery fucking Valley?” This gets a huge laugh out of Harry, one that has his head thrown back and his hands clapping together. It's so endearing that it almost takes away from the fact that Harry here voluntarily moved to this shithole. 

“Yeah well, the city life was getting too big for me and my mom, I s'pose. We just kind of wanted to get away from it all.” The look on Harry's face tells Louis that the story probably goes a little farther and deeper than that. Louis, being the gentleman that he is, doesn't push.

“Well, if you wanted to get away from everything in existence, you've come to the right place,” Louis says with a crinkly smile. This causes another laugh to rip out of Harry.

“Well, that was the goal,” he says back with a grin.

“Sorry, I'm Louis. I live just next door.” 

“Oh, my first neighbor!” Harry exclaims with a brilliant grin.

“Yeah, and your only one, by the looks of it.” They smile at each other. “So, which of the two high schools are you planning on attending?” Louis says with a sarcastic edge. Seeing the smile Harry produces is worth it. Harry has to stop and think for a moment, biting his lip.

“I think it's Zuko High?” Harry asks. He's so clueless about this town, it's so adorable.  
“Well lucky you then, because that's where I go. You've made a friend there before your first day.” This provokes one of Harry's many smiles. “I assume you're not going today, what with the moving and all?”

Harry nods. “Yeah, my first day is tomorrow.” 

“Well, Harry, what do you say I walk you tomorrow? As long as you stick with me, you'll be fine in this town. I can show you around school, teach you the ropes and all that.” If this is Louis' lame attempt to spend more time with this beautiful, green-eyed boy, no one has to know. 

Harry's face lights up brilliantly. “That would be amazing, thank you so much.”

Louis smiles and looks down at his phone. “Shit, I have to run. 'M gonna be late for school. I'll see you tomorrow?”

Harry smiles fondly and nods. “I'll see you tomorrow.”

And of course, they fall in love.

xxx

It's 7:45 am and Louis is about to knock on Harry's door.

He straightens his hair out in the reflection of the glass piece in the center of their door. Louis doesn't even know why he's so nervous, it's just a boy. Then he remembers what said boy looks like and- ah, yes, he's sweating again.

He clears his throat and thinking now or never, he knocks on the door three solid times. Not even five seconds later, Harry is on the other side looking at Louis with a blinding smile.

“Hi, ready to go?” Louis asks in a much more pleasant voice than 7:45 am usually provides.

“Yep, high school here I come,” Harry says sarcastically. A man after Louis' own heart. 

Louis is about to turn around but stops to look Harry not-so-subtly up and down. He's wearing black Converse with dark wash skinny jeans, paired with a white t-shirt. Last, but not least, perched on his throne of hair is a light pink beanie.

Fuck, Louis thinks. Harry looks good.

“So how long is the walk to school exactly?” Harry asks, walking up the path.

“Hmmm?” Louis asks distractedly, still looking at Harry's torso under his shirt.

“The walk? To school? Louis?”

Hearing his name shakes him out of his reverie. “Sorry? Ah the walk! Yes! About fifteen minutes, good lad, we've got plenty of time.” Louis sees the small smirk on Harry's face as he looks forward and thinks he's eternally screwed. He thinks the best thing to do is start walking and change the subject.  
“So I couldn't help but notice yesterday that you have a lot of books. You like reading, then?”

Harry looks slightly embarrassed, but the passion in his eyes is stronger. “I absolutely love it. I love characters and plotlines and the way stories build. It's just so....surreal.” He's smiling so big when he's talking about literature that it makes Louis ache. He could watch Harry talk about books for the rest of his life.

“Sorry, I bet that was really lame,” Harry says as he looks down. Louis can see the red on his cheeks. He wants to hug this boy until the end of time.

“Not at all. I think it's wonderful.” Harry's head snaps up to look at Louis. He scans Louis' face like he thinks he's kidding.

“Really?”

“Absolutely. Not enough people read anymore. It's very endearing.” Louis gives him a wide smile that Harry mirrors. God, he's in far too deep.

“So tell me again why you decided to move to the Valley From Hell, Harold?” Louis asks as they start walking side by side.

Harry chuckles and shrugs. “Mom and I just didn't like the cramped city life. We needed somewhere with space, somewhere with a backyard, a town that didn't have a population count higher than our heads.” Louis nods along, even though he doesn't really understand. He supposes the one thing he takes for granted are the beautiful, huge houses of Crossery and the beautiful, small price tag. 

“What about you, then? Lived here long?” Harry asks.

“Only my whole life,” Louis replies. He turns his head to look at Harry with a pained smile. 

“You don't like it here?” Harry frowns.

“What was your first clue?” This gets them smiling again. “It's alright, I guess, but it's so small and so, so isolated. I want to see new things, you know? Meet new people,” he gives Harry a shy side glance and looks down. “I always thought we would move, or at least go on a vacation. Then, after my dad left, I realized there was no way. My mom loves this town too much, and seeing my dad walk out the door was seeing my hope of getting out of here leaving too.”

He chances a look at Harry and sees such pain in his eyes that it takes him back. Then he speaks.

“I'm sorry your dad left. And I'm sorry you feel so trapped. I would set you free, if I could.”

And Louis has never been more touched.

xxx

Louis goes with Harry to pick up his class schedule and they realize they have almost all of their classes together. Harry seems very relieved to know someone in almost every class, so he doesn't have to suffer the social embarrassment of sitting alone. Louis rolls his eyes and thinks Harry is a dork.  
At lunch, he introduces Harry to Niall and Zayn. They all sit together in the cafeteria, and as Louis suspected, they seem to hit it off fairly quickly. 

“Ah, so you're the famous Harry then!” Niall exclaims with a mouth full of meatloaf. “Louis here wouldn't shut up about you yesterda-” Louis drives his elbow into Niall's stomach, pulling an oof noise out of him and causing him to spew out some of the food in his mouth.

“You'll have to excuse Niall, he's drunk again,” Louis says as he turns to give Niall a withering glance. 

“Oh, I don't think he is,” Zayn pipes in. In a falsetto voice, he begins to say, “Oh, Z, you should see the boy who moved in next to me. He was so pretty, Z, and he had this...” Louis groans and puts his head on the table, knowing that he won't be able to stop Niall and Zayn once they're teamed up against him. As Zayn continues to mimick Louis, Niall jumps in and Louis can hear Harry absolutely howling with laughter. 

“I'm going to go bring my tray back,” Louis spits out, standing up and trying to hide his red face. 

“Aw, come on, we're sorry!” Niall yells after him. Louis gives him the finger over his should and keeps walking. 

He's putting his tray back when he turns around and finds himself face to face with Harry. 

“Oh, god, I'm sorry, they're idiots, I-”

“Don't worry about it, Louis,” Harry says, still laughing. “It was cute.” Harry beams and leans over Louis to put his tray back. When he's leaning back, he stops at Louis' ear.

“And if it helps, I think you're pretty, too,” Harry whispers in a low gravel voice. He smiles at Louis and winks, then spins around and makes his way back to their lunch table.

It's a miracle Louis' knees don't give out.

xxx

It's no surprise to Louis or anyone around him when Harry and him become inseparable. They walk to school together, they sit in classes together, they eat lunch together, they walk home together. They spend time together on weekends. 

And Louis never stops thinking about that first day in the cafeteria. 

Again, it's no surprise to Louis or anyone around him when Louis starts to fall in love with Harry, slowly but surely. It happens like time passes; slowly and gradually day to day, but when you look back a year, everything is different. That's how it feels to fall in love with Harry. Every day it's a joke Harry thinks is funny, or Harry cooking dinner with his mom, or the way Harry looks when he reads. But when Louis looks at the big picture, it's every detail about Harry. It's every fiber of his being. Every digit of his genetic code.

And Louis never stops falling.

xxx

“We should go camping.”

Everyone turns to look at Liam. Liam had been a part of their group ever since they formed back in kindergarten. After Harry's latest entry, it just seems right. Like Harry was the last piece of the puzzle.

They're all hanging out in Zayn's basement, finishing up homework and watching movies and doing very manly guy things when Liam comes up with the idea. They all seem very skeptical from the start.

“What?” Zayn asks.

“Camping!” Liam jumps up like it's the best idea there's been since sliced bread. “All five of us, for a weekend. We could go to Grey Harbor, it's only like a 2 hour drive. What do you say, lads? A nice mates weekend?” 

They all exchange looks, and when Louis locks eyes with Harry, he looks almost as excited as Liam. There's no way Louis can say no now.

“I'm in!” Harry jumps up next to Liam. 

“Me too.” Niall joins them. Now it's only Louis and Zayn, and Louis knows Zayn's going to be a right bitch about it.

“C'mon, Lou, pleeeaasseeee?” Harry gives him the doe eyes that break Louis every time. 

“No. Not the eyes.” Harry cranes his neck and makes them even bigger. “No, absolutely not.” Harry starts to walk over to him, never breaking eye contact. 

“FINE! I'll go on the bloody camping trip.” Harry lets out a little squeal and jumps into Louis' lap. Louis rolls his eyes, pretending to be annoyed, but when Harry smacks a kiss to his cheek, he knows he doesn't look anything but fond.

“Alright! Four out of five! What d'you say, Zayner?” Niall is like a 6 years old, so of course Zayn lets out a small 'yea, sure, whatever'. He doesn't look happy about it, though.

“Alright, let's get packing!”

xxx

Zayn's mom agreed to lend them her giant, hideous, orange van, so they pack their bags in the trunk (Harry has 2 full of books) (Louis mocked him relentlessly) and hit the road. Zayn is the most reliable driver, so he's doing the full two hours whilst everyone else does everything in their power to annoy the shit out of him. They decide to make it a road trip tradition. 

Harry and Louis spend the entire time playing cards. Once they get tired of the basic Go Fish, War, and Crazy Eights, they begin to make up their own games. At one point they have to stop, after realizing these games make absolutely no sense.

“I think I'm going to try to take a nap. We've still got an hour left to go,” Harry says once the cards are all packed away. “Wake me when we get there?” 

“Yeah, okay,” Louis says with a smile. Harry moves so he's snuggled up right against Louis and closes his eyes. Louis' heartbeat picks up significantly, not that he'd ever tell. 

“So, when are you going to tell him you're madly in love with him?” Niall asks from the front seat, after Harry's breathing has evened out. 

Louis sighs and looks down at the snoring boy on his chest. He can feel the fond smile starting to creep onto his face.

“Soon. When the time is right.”

xxx

One night, weeks after camping, Louis is laying in bed when he gets a text from Harry. 

Meet me in my backyard.

Confused, Louis gets up and climbs out his window. Harry and him had set up ladders outside their respective bedroom windows so they could sneak out whenever they want and meet. It was a great idea (not to mention Louis'). Louis scales his way carefully down the rings of the ladder until his bare feet touch the grass and soil beneath him. It's dark out, so he uses his phone as a light to guide him through Harry's gate and into the yard. The great thing about the Styles residence is the huge back lawn they have. It stretches out for what feel like miles and has the most beautiful little hill in the middle. 

When Louis enters the yard, he squints to see Harry sitting in the small hill. Louis makes his way over to where Harry is and sits down right beside him. Harry is looking up at the sky and Louis doesn't want to disturb, so he looks too and soaks up the silence between the two of them.

“Stars are beautiful,” Harry says after a long while. The pale moonlight is shining on Harry's face, making him glow with a luminous beauty. He looks like a young child and more like a man than Louis has seen him all at once. Small and big, brave and terrified. 

It takes Louis' breath away.

“Yeah,” he manages to breathe out.

He turns his head to look right into Louis' eyes. “You're beautiful.” 

Louis almost chokes on air, but catches himself at the last minute. “Thank you,” he whispers out dumbly.

Harry looks at him one more time before surges forward and kissing him.

Louis only has about 3 seconds to be surprised before he's kissing him back. He slips his arms around Harry's neck and he starts to open his mouth with his tongue. Louis has wanted this for so long- dreamed about it- and everything is coming together at once. Everything is sparks and rain and fire and Louis can't get enough. Harry moves his hand up Louis' back and under his shirt to feel the soft skin there. Louis makes a noise of approval and moves in closer before pulling his mouth away from Harry's. Harry leans his forehead against Louis' and opens his eyes, not even an inch away.

“I am so in love with you,” he breathes out.

And Louis could laugh or cry or scream or something equally ridiculous to show how much he loves Harry, how long he has loved him, how badly he wants Louis and Harry to be Louisandharry for the rest of his life.

Instead, all that he chokes out is, “Right back atcha.”

They dissolve in a fit of laughter and fall onto their backs on the hill.

xxx

**Author's Note:**

> this is only the first chapter so ayy but yea there will maybe be more to come!!!!!


End file.
